Chapter Text
“How about one more?”
His hands fell easily over those familiar strings.
Tobio liked to think that his guitar was a part of him. The handles, decorated with stickers of the idols he loved most— the strings, which were strummed and then toyed with, making the sound of a thrumming heartbeat— and the strap, which kept him grounded, keeping his footing stable. So as he played to his heart’s content, his body felt like it was riding on a sweet, enthralling fire.
Could anything top this feeling?
His soul felt touched as he reached the end of his guitar solo, sending the crowd into a massive, finalizing clap before the song ended and the light dawned above him and his other bandmates. Right now, he felt greedy— hungry for more. Because, in a larger sense, there was nothing better than seeing the approval from people about his music and watching them scramble for more. It was a fruitful feeling, and he had gotten laughed at for that mindset— he soured, Shoyo made that incredibly clear— but he was just spouting the truth.
Now… he needed more than just a taste.
He was dreadfully shocked out of his music-filled craze when he saw Kei, his blond and incredibly aggravating bandmate on the other side of the stage, seemingly bored. His blood immediately began to boil and simmer. Kei glanced over and gave him a scoff.
Alas, not all pleasurable items in performing and music memories were so bountiful. So, after already getting a sour mood, forty five minutes after he was met with the even more gruelling and rather puzzling part of being a sought after musician— the fans. The QnAs. The VIPs at the end of the concerts they held. Tobio, even after meeting with people who’ve adored him for years, still did not know how to interact. But he pushed on.
He, Shoyo, and Tadashi climbed down the stage and into the backstage area, where the trio were being anticipated. They stopped for a minute to send hearts and chat. Tadashi, their leader with a cheerful voice but a powerful smack, turned his head. “Where’s Tsukki?”
Shoyo stopped his playful banter with fans as they walked along. “If I could tell you, I would, but he escapes the fans like his life depends on it.” Shoyo grumbled, his tangerine hair having its own emotion as it drooped down halfheartedly.
“And as if I’d care where he went.” Tobio scowled. Shoyo giggled a bit.
But… even he contemplated the same choice that Kei had made. It was looking like a better sanity-saving option if he went along with Kei and avoided the crowds— but unlike Kei, he was facing them head on and figuring out how to deal with them, that nonchalant bastard— and so all he could do was suck in a sharp, eminent breath of boastfulness and move on until the trio could meet with Kei at their private ride.
As they walked outside, hordes were gathering, their hands all full with lightsticks, wristbands and phones. And as if a window was repeatedly being bashed at with a hammer, their fans called out:
“Tobio-kun!!—“
“Tadashi! You were amazing!”
“Tangeriiiine!”
A bucket-load of airkisses and hand-hearts floated throughout the air as they fought their way out of their crowds with an intense smile on their faces. It did feel quite nice, Tobio had to admit, seeing all the people that appreciated his looks and efforts, but still…
Sharply, as if he had taken a drastic turn into a right-sided universe, the silence of their private car turned ear deafening. Here laid Tsukishima Kei, looking at them without remorse, and instead a feigned sympathy dripping down his annoying smirk, a snarky response to their chaotic entrance sure to come his way—
“How was it?” The blonde asked as they filed in tiredly.
“Shut up.” Tobio adamantly pushed his seatbelt in.
“You’re going to face them at least once in your career, Tsukki.” Tadashi murmured as he sat at the front— Tobio found it quite ironic, as when they first started all working together in a band, Tadashi seemed to be the one scaredy cat— now, it felt almost intimidating to see him talk like that. Tsukki frowned but did not reply. Tadashi went back to talking with the driver.
“That’s right,” Shoyo pointed out, “how can we impress everyone when we don’t have you around?”
…
“I’m not buying you food.” Kei said flatly.
“Damn it.”
Kei smiled helplessly, “And it’s not like it’ll matter anyway.”
Tadashi flashed him an almost disappointed, sour look before the car began moving away from the clumps of gathered fans. Kei sat on the left. Tobio sat on the right. Shoyo sat in the dead center of the two men. To say that it was tense was an understatement. After a moment passed slowly, Shoyo progressively getting more and more squirmy in his seat by the minute, he blurted out, “Can we get convenience store food for dinner?”
They took a right turn. “It’s fine by me.” Tobio replied. He could eat.
“I mean…” Tadashi started, “I’m okay with that, but usually we order takeout. Do you not like chicken anymore?” He asked curiously.
“No, I love chicken—! But… I saw online that they have these awesome microwaveable takoyaki and it looks absolutely delicious, you know.” Shoyo insisted.
And so they went. The city was quick to turn dark, sky-high lights peppered around them. They then pulled up to a nearby convenience store in which they happily parked for a fleeting moment right at the front. Tadashi inhaled considerably loud, and the question that hung in the air stood concrete between the four bandmates— who will be the one going inside to buy the goods?
Their captain turned back to the men in the three seats, filled with amusement— “Tsukki, you’re going.”
“Huh?” Was the blonde’s response, and Tobio had never snickered harder. “Why me?”
Shoyo giggled, “Payback for all of the times you proceeded to escape instead of meeting with fans.”
“Ha,” Tobio coughed out. Kei quickly went over Shoyo’s lap and smacked him on the arm, “Ow!”
“You too, Kageyama. Go with him.” Tadashi instructed.
“Huh?”
Kei had never snickered harder.
And so, Tobio and Kei set off on a rather infuriating quest for takoyaki and other goods.
Tobio had always found Kei annoying, so even from the start he knew sparks were bound to fly, even if they only spent fifteen minutes here. With hoods on and masks and sunglasses on their heads, they waltzed in and began to look for the takoyaki Shoyo wanted. He didn’t really… specify what it looked like exactly. But he did say it was popular, so that was all it took for Tobio to find the frozen bag of it immediately, one of the last ones on the shelf. Could this really be good? He wondered, staring at the package. I should get drinks for us all.
“I don’t think that’s the right one.” Kei muttered as he came over to him. Tobio stared at the packaging.
“Well he didn’t specify.” Tobio scoffed out. He eyed the cart Kei was holding— of course, he was two steps ahead of Tobio and ended up grabbing an assortment of drinks— non-alcoholic and alcoholic— all neatly inside. Tobio turned his attention to it so that he wouldn’t have to focus on Kei’s annoying voice. “Nihonshu?”
“Stop changing the subject. Let me take a look at the takoyaki.” Kei extended out his hand.
“This is the right one, though…!”
“Uh-huh. Let me see it, Kageyama.”
They bickered intensely with their stares for a moment, even though their irises were hard to see from the sunglasses, and Kei slowly turned down his sunglasses so that he could read the packaging. He sighed, “If you grabbed the wrong one it is all on you.”
“Excuse me?” Tobio glared as he stuffed the takoyaki into Kei’s basket. The blonde rolled his eyes and placed his sunglasses over his eyes again, a frown apparent on his face as they walked down the aisle for anything else. “And if we all have a hangover on the day of a concert it’s all on you.”
“A hung-over Tobio is a good way to make you stop talking.” Kei mumbled discreetly as he grabbed a couple of strawberry cream sandos and plopped them into their cart. Tobio wanted nothing but to bare his fangs and hit Kei on the back of the head, but he had more decency than the blonde to do anything sinister.
With their moods sour they silently made it to the cash register, where a young lady was handling the front.
It was going… suspiciously well. The young lady seemed to have no problem with their sneaky appearance, even smiling brightly to them straight in the eyes as she packaged their things in plastic bags. “Thank you, please come again!…”
She stared at both of them with intense excitement. Kei bowed slightly. “Thank you.”
What Tobio did not expect him to do was to grab both of the plastic bags in one hand and snatch his wrist in the other, speed walking out of the convenience store. Tobio suppressed a yelp as he stumbled over.
“Why the hell are you acting like this?” Tobio argued.
“Did you not see?” Kei hissed, dragging them out back to their private ride, “That lady one hundred percent knew about us.”
“You’re weird. She didn’t say anything.”
“It’s in her eyes.” Kei opened the car door, his voice now regular and full of dripping sarcasm and anger, “She’s probably going to look at the camera footage and realize there were two of the biggest band members in Japan as of now right in front of her.”
His words fell hard into the car and Shoyo, who was eyeing the food greedily, now looked at them in shock and worry. Tadashi immediately turned his head. “Did you guys blow it?” He asked, stone cold.
Kei strapped in his seatbelt calmly. Tobio sat frozen.
“…Ugh.” Shoyo sighed, “You guys got the right takoyaki, right?”
“Yes.” Tobio said.
“No.” Kei said at the same time.
…
“Never send them anywhere again.” Shoyo huffed out.
“For once, you’re right,” Tadashi drawled before turning his body again, “Let’s go back and get some rest. Kageyama, you’re not practicing with Shoyo for today. Go think about whatever the heck you guys did in your room. Now, for Tsukki you’re the one going to practice.”
“Seriously?” Tobio muttered.
Kei said nothing.
This was more than just a nightmare.
Despite the ultra smooth pillowcases and the comfy, puffed-up looking blankets around him, Kageyama Tobio could not sleep. His dark eyes were wide awake, and his body was rolling all over the bed he shouldn’t have been in; he should’ve been out practicing. His body was relentlessly excited to practice, and yet Kei had ruined it all. Quietly, Tobio groaned and shoved his face under his pillow.
What a waste.
He kept his head under until he heard the door creak, and he quickly pulled himself out of it. Tobio lazily dragged his head to see who it was. “Hi…Hinata?” He mumbled, half of his face smushed on the bed like a pancake.
“Was kind of boring practicing.” The ginger sighed, and it was clear he was still energetic as he paced around the room with vigor— “I’m so accustomed to matching with you during dancing or matching the notes whenever you play guitar but it's just no use. Yamaguchi’s already off to bed, too. And you know how hard he sleeps.” He muttered.
“Yamaguchi’s asleep?” Tobio asked, wide awake again.
“Yeah? Yeah… Oh.”
Tobio quickly shoved the sheets off of him and slid off the bed, raring to go as he stretched his body and grabbed his guitar, which was leaning near the wall. “Let’s go practice for a little bit.”
“Hell yeah.”
They quietly marched through the hallways, being especially sneaky when they passed by Yamaguchi’s room— Tobio quickly pushed his bandmate on the back to force him to go faster. “Move.”
“Do you want us to get caught?” Shoyo hissed. With no more complaints, there was the final door away from all of the bedrooms— Tobio was extremely glad they had added sound-absorbing mats along the walls so that their loud music practices wouldn’t leak out into other people sleeping, but it still was pretty easy to see if people were inside the room, so him and Shoyo weren’t all that safe. Shoyo went in and began running to his set of drums before he asked Tobio, “Actually… go to the fridge and get us some water.”
“Ugh… fine.”
Luckily, his throat was surprisingly dry, so he had no reluctance heading over to the kitchen to grab a few drinks for them.
Tobio opened the fridge and was blearily blasted with a cold breeze. He reached in to grab a few bottles.
From the bedrooms, a door creaked open and Tobio had never been so fast to close everything and whip his head around. Was it Yamaguchi? Oh, he was going to get killed if he got found out.
Tobio stopped in his frantic tracks, and his anxiousness was replaced with a flat frustration.
Kei walked over, almost limping as he brushed past him to grab some water like him. He was wearing a plain, oversized white shirt and black sweatpants with his glasses off. “Can’t sleep?” The blonde mumbled.
“Yeah. You can say that.” Tobio said.
Kei blinked drowsily, raising his head and taking a big gulp of water. “I don’t care if you’re practicing.” Tobio almost dropped his water at that, “Just don’t wake me up. You guys were loud going through the hallways.”
Tobio soured. “…Fine.”
They both huffed, but for a moment, Tobio instinctively reached out, maybe to ask something like Do you wanna go ahead and practice with us? But he was pretty sure Kei would just laugh at him right on the face before crashing back to bed, so he didn’t. He opened his mouth to say something but Shoyo tapped him on the shoulder, which scared him.
“Dude.” Shoyo glanced at Kei, “Oh! Tsukishima-kun.”
“It’s the middle of the night. I don’t know why you guys just can’t sleep.”
“You don’t get it.” Shoyo shook his head.
“Mm. Clearly.” Kei murmured.
“Thanks for the water even if it took a while.” Shoyo took the cold bottles out of Tobio’s hands and walked over to the sound-proof room again, “Wanna practice with us, Tsukishima?”
“…You’re funny.”
“Okay, be like that then! Kageyama, come with me!”
“H—huh? Yeah, yeah I am—!” He coughed out.
He glanced back, and saw Kei eyeing him with an unreadable face. The expression somehow left an impression on him.
They sauntered off, leaving Kei alone in the kitchen, drinking ice cold water surrounded by darkness.
Tobio’s sleep that night was one of the best sleeps he’d ever had.
Memories of last night were foggy, but the key details stood out— less mistakes were detected in his footing, in his tempo, and in his stage presence. Despite running on an hour or so of sleep during that time, he had played like never before, and he sort of wished to return back to that time. But now it wasn't so bad. The covers were nice and cold, only his body temperature heating the sheets under him, his eyelids heavy and his mind half awake in a content rest as he rolled around…
Beats played in his head subconsciously. He blinked tiredly and saw the light spraying onto his bed like cooking oil, igniting the white with serenity.
Oh yeah. This was great.
He yawned, and turned his head to see Shoyo on the other side of the bed, snoring softly body sprawled out. Funny that even though Shoyo had hogged the bed, he had a great sleep.
He heard some commotion outside of their bedroom.
He rolled over. This was too good to just pass on… maybe just a couple… more minutes—
A knock rapped at their door. Shoyo honked and rubbed his eyes. “Later.” Tobio mumbled.
“Later.” Shoyo agreed.
Tadashi peeked in, his freckles capturing the sunlight with grace— he glanced at both of them and smiled, “Breakfast. It’s not takoyaki— we ate too much of it last night.”
“Oh yeah I’m up.” Shoyo promptly slid himself off of the bed and walked over to the open door— the bedroom was immediately filled with the familiar smell of rice and tamago… and of course, Tobio was overwhelmed by the thought of food to get out of bed. With a quick stretch, he squared his shoulders and walked out into the kitchen area.
“Did you really do this all yourself? You’re such a mom! Thanks, Yamaguchi!”
“Sure…” Tadashi tilted his head over to the hallway as he grabbed a bowl of fluffy rice, “Tsukki still not up? Did he practice last night?”
“Um…”
As if on cue, Kei walked out of his bedroom, clearly disoriented and weak. He brushed past the delicious breakfast to grab some water. “You don’t look too good, Tsukki…” Yamaguchi worried, “What happened?”
“It’s nothing.” Kei said.
“Eat some food, Tsukishima.” Shoyo held up a bowl of rice for him, “Let’s go practice after!”
“…Fine.” He relented, sitting down calmly next to Tobio and him, “Just a little.”
And like a functional band for once, they sat and ate breakfast. Tadashi sat down on the other side as Shoyo chirped on and on about his dreams of going on a world tour, which got Tobio rallying to go— they talked about the countries they would visit and all the sights they would get to see. Shoyo tilted his head in thought, “Does France have stadiums? Maybe… if we ever perform over there we should go and see the— the— what tower was it?”
“The Eiffel Tower?” Kei asked blandly.
“Yes! I’ve heard it looks amazing.”
“Don’t go too fast,” Tobio snickered, “You’ve only seen the Skytree a couple times and you’ve mistaken three others as it when they were just cell towers.”
“Not my fault we’re not allowed to venture out into Tokyo whenever we’re there!” Shoyo snapped.
“Yeah, because if we let you go wild we'll never find you and we’ll have to catch the private plane to France without you.” Tadashi wrinkled his nose. For once, Kei let out a chuckle as he ate the rest of his food. The playful mood that was evident across all of their faces soon came to a pause when Tadashi’s phone rang— his eyes lit up when he say the caller, “Ah, Yachi-san!”
“Yacchan!”
Yachi Hitoka was their media and editing manager— so for all things video, social media, and advertisements on their concerts and tickets, it was all in her range. She was an extremely kind manager who had just under a year of experience from their makeup and stylist, Kiyoko Shimizu. For her to be almost on par with that woman, Tobio respected Yachi-san very much.
“Hello?” Tadashi answered.
The table stared at him expectantly.
“Hm? Well… we went out yesterday after the concert. It was just at the convenience store to get some food… Huh? What do you mean check your phones?”
Out of curiosity, Tobio took his phone out of his pocket— everything was quite normal, until he opened all of his social media.
Oh. Oh.
A thick layer of silence blanketed itself all over the band as they realized that someone had recorded Tobio and Kei going out yesterday, specifically the part where Kei was lowering his sunglasses and leaning in to take a look at the takoyaki…
Tobio’s face flushed. That part? From that angle, it really did look like Kei was leaning in to kiss him.
He scrolled. Another post. This time, the angle was from the top, near the front while they paid, capturing the devastatingly vivid moment where Kei took his wrist and sped him out of the store. The comments were split in half, one side whining about how good they looked even with sketchy clothes on, and the other half debating whether or not ‘something was going on between the two.’
“No way.” Shoyo blinked rapidly.
“You can’t be serious.” Tobio groaned.
“I literally told you she knew.” Kei elbowed him.
“Shut up!”
“Yes— yes, we’ll be more careful. Ah… how long do you think this’ll last for?” They all indeed shut up at that one, “…Really… Okay. Thank you, sorry for the trouble, Yachi-san. Take care. Right.”
Tadashi glanced at both of them. Then, he started laughing, which ultimately surprised the three, “I mean— seriously, what were you guys doing? Making out? Just get the food and leave!”
Tobio spluttered uncontrollably. Kei rolled his eyes and said, “Why am I getting laughed at? He started it.”
“You had part in this!” Tobio snapped.
“The videos did look lovey-dovey from an angle.” Hinata chirped. Tobio immediately flushed— how would something like that be deemed as romantic? Tobio was close to punching Kei that day and now it was twisted into a cheesy romance he… didn’t want.
He didn’t know why he hesitated at that.
“Alright. So here’s the deal. You guys have to keep it together. I don’t care what you guys do to do that but— this is our first… scandal?” Tadashi asked on his word choice, and Kei let out a chuckle under his breath before Tobio cursed him out, “So you guys have to try and interact with fans more. Specifically the girls.”
“So… everyone.” Kei said.
“Yeah. You guys have to just— keep it cool. Don’t do anything to alert the public.”
Tobio had lost his appetite. Ugh.
So, all he wanted to do was to go around and perform until a blonde, remorseless maniac steps all over him over Takoyaki. Tobio sighed.
He just hoped it would be nothing more than this.